HDR (high dynamic range) techniques in digital imaging often make exaggerated dark looking clouds that are nearly black in spots. The other evening, I saw these clouds coming and they were almost black all by themselves without help from me and with the nearly setting sun providing some really bright areas breaking through. Saved me a lot of time in post processing.

It’s hard for someone my age who remembers the great amount of patriotism that followed the 9-11 attacks in New York and Washington, to realize that most of the kids in school have little or no remembrance of the event itself and that we have settled back into a mindset that preceded it. Some people may welcome this and others decry it, but it is what it is. Anyway, I made this image in downtown Chicago a few years ago while there was still some national pride.

An image of the Buddha Pavilion at Allerton Park by Monticello, Illinois. This is along the path that gets you to see the Fu Dogs. There are two Siamese Buddha statues (one shown here) and a Harihara statue in the Pavilion. The iron work on top is from a building originally in New Orleans. I usually just trek on to the Fu Dogs which are some of my favorite things in the park, but it’s hard not to stop and make a quick image of the pavilion.

I was watching a presentation of portfolio reviews the other day and the presenters recommended (almost insisted) that you shouldn’t include images of dead trees among other things. Oh well, here’s some dead trees.

Another exhibit of my fondness for corners. It’s not the corner so much, but the way the various lines and angles interact with each other and with the textures. And, as usual, it has an almost monochromatic look that I like.

The Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorus combined with Olivet Nazarene University instrumentalists and singers to perform Beethoven’s Symphony #9 at Olivet’s Centennial Chapel. There were about two hundred performers on stage and I’m in there somewhere sitting in the back row of the orchestra a bit to stage right. In addition to playing horn, I made some images using my radio remote control shutter release with my camera on a tripod in the media control area.